The soaring temperatures in the city have not only left you sweating and reluctant to step outdoors, they have also taken a toll on power companies, which are grappling to meet the increased load.

With temperatures hovering around the 37-degree Celsius mark in the past few days, the use of air conditioners and fans has increased in residences as well as offices, resulting in a nearly 550 MW surge in power consumption in the city and the suburbs.

Sources said the daily electricity demand has touched 3,430 MW against the usual figure of 2,900 MW at this time of the year. Power experts said that this sudden hike in power demand is normally found in the month of May.

Reliance Infrastructure, which supplies electricity to over 24 lakh consumers in the suburbs, has seen its demand touching 1,700 MW. “The demand in the suburbs is around 1,700 MW and we have seen a marginal surge.

The major increase in demand for power will happen in May,” said an RInfra official.BEST, which supplies electricity to 10 lakh consumers in the island city on the Colaba-Sion/Mahim stretch, also said there is a hike in demand.

“The demand in the last couple of days has touched 850 MW. With polling day being a holiday for most people, the demand came down a bit, but other days have seen an increase,” said a BEST official.

Sources said that if this trend continues, it would be really difficult to meet this increased demand in the future, especially every May. “People should limit their air conditioner’s load to 24 degrees, otherwise it will surely cause a problem in the coming days,” said power expert Ashok Pendse.